International School Libraries Count!: Collection Development from Across the World

Aiani, C. W. (2015). International school librarians count: current issues with intellectual freedom and access to information. Knowledge Quest, 44(1), E5-E9.

1948 marked the turning point when United Nations declared intellectual freedom a basic human right.  While school libraries all over the world and in the United States alike uphold and defend the right of access to information, there is a distinct difference in the fight.  Candace Aiani, library coordinator and upper school librarian in Taipei describes her experiences in Taiwan and the experiences of her colleagues.  She says the main difference is that each library is pretty much left to fend for itself and while that may seem lonely, Aiani argues it can sometimes be a good thing.  She shows that librarians are charged with making all of the decisions for their community and for the most part they are trusted to do so with little complaint.  On the other hand, there are few laws and professional organizations to uphold a strict standard, which can act as support and guidance when areas are gray.  Aiani calls for more international collaboration and coalition building between school librarians world-wide.


J. Hasselberger
Spring 2016

Collection Librarians in India

Washechek, Evan

References

Giri, R. r., Sen, B. b., & Mahesh, G. g. (2015). Collection Development in Indian Academic Libraries: An Empirical Approach to Determine the Number of Copies for Acquisition. DESIDOC Journal Of Library & Information Technology, 35(3), 184-192.

Summary

This week I came across this fascinating article discussing the different perception that exists in academic libraries in India. According to the article, there have been lots of private academic institutions that a recent flux of cash has propped up in the past decade. Of these Universities, lots of which have well-funded libraries. However the author writes that Librarians are often overstretched and understaffed. This is in addition to the fact that Collections are merely thought of as a sum total of the items that exist within the library. This is coupled with the tradition in Indian Campuses to have a much more top down hierarchy and most of the heads of departments selecting the materials for professors in the field and them in turn telling the libraries which books they will be using for their courses. The author notes the specific struggle by stating, “Unlike the academic libraries in the western world, Indian academic libraries hardly have subject specialist librarians. Thus, there is a lack of library staff that can be spared to liaise constantly with faculties and students to understand their needs and expectations and contribute significantly to collection development.” Not only are there not very many subject specialists, but because of the increased work load on the collections librarians our author denotes a particular struggle that I believe most western libraries can identify with, “In many a case, the acquisition department/ librarian has a weak tie with circulation /lending/reference sections that are in the best position to understand the students /faculty demands.”

Evaluation

Although the academic library system in India is very robust and complicated as well as difficult to discuss in one article (or one summary), there certainly were parallels which I was able to draw between them and the western world in which I have library experience. Lack of funding for materials, staff or other necessities is a constant, as well as lack of communications interdepartmentally. It also seems that although the solutions put forth in this article were cohesive (attempting to increase the book to student ratio). Their problems of providing the book for students are unique, because in the U.S. for the most part we have a culture of capitalism which encourages students to purchase all of their required texts. This solution would be viewed as a waste of University money and destruction of the cash cow that is college books.